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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25097158">Daydream Monologue</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiko152/pseuds/Chiko152'>Chiko152</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, College, F/F, Introspection, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:56:09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,351</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25097158</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiko152/pseuds/Chiko152</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>After Aqours, Yoshiko and Riko have drifted apart.<br/>A chance encounter might just be enough for Riko to try and bridge the gap between them.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sakurauchi Riko/Tsushima Yoshiko</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>62</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Daydream Monologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I tried a slightly different style for this fic. Hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h1>1</h1>
<p>Yoshiko is alone.</p>
<p>It’s not really that unusual now. She’s in college after all. She’s got better things to do. </p>
<p>It's late at night and the lights are all off. It’s a cold winter night on the thirteenth of February. Yoshiko pays extra attention to the date today. Despite growing out of her little demon phase, Yoshiko is still wary of days with unlucky numbers. It’s just one of her strange superstitions she’s still hanging onto.</p>
<p>Now it’s just her and her phone in the darkness. Everyone else in Aqours is probably asleep right now. She scrolls through her contacts, finding Riko Sakurauchi as she does so. </p>
<p>Riko is still online. Yoshiko thinks about it some more. She’s probably just left herself online on accident. She remembers Zuramaru doing that her fair share of times, so maybe Riko just forgot to turn off her phone.</p>
<p>She’s tempted to message her, ask her how her day has been, if she wants to hang out. But her mind restrains herself from doing that. All due to one inconvenient little detail.</p>
<p>Yoshiko is in love.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Riko’s packing up. After a productive session in the practice room, she gets ready to leave. She puts her cardigan over her white dress and picks up her sheet music, putting it neatly into her backpack. She stands up from the piano stool and she’s ready to leave.</p>
<p>Throwing herself into the world of music was an easy choice. It lets her take her mind off all the things she used to worry about in high school. All of the last minute studying sessions, the sleepless nights where she worried about fitting in with her new classmates. It’s all a thing of the past now.</p>
<p>Even her shameless high school crush, who used to be at the forefront of her mind is now neatly filed away. It makes the regrets and the feelings of <em> what if </em> not affect her as much. Sometimes it pays to be busy. It pays to be working hard enough to never have time to think about these things.</p>
<p>One of the few times Riko doesn’t have that luxury is the few minutes when she’s walking home.</p>
<p>There’s a short girl walking past Riko, holding a bag. She has short brown hair in a neat bob. Riko recognises her as a younger student, Natsumi from the violin section.</p>
<p>“Wanna walk together Riko?” Natsumi is bouncing on the spot with energy.</p>
<p>“No thanks, I’ve got to get home.” Riko says, playing it off as casually as she can. She’s got things to do when she gets home. She’ll probably compose something new. It’ll be a good distraction.</p>
<p>“How about next time?” She asks with wide, expectant eyes.</p>
<p>“We’ll see.” Riko gives her a reassuring smile.</p>
<p>“See you tomorrow then!” She says, breaking into a run.</p>
<p>Riko’s content until she sees something fly out of her bag. She hastily scrambles to pick it up.</p>
<p>She pauses when she realises she recognises the cover. Then she realises what she recognises it from. She blushes just a little bit.</p>
<p>Riko breaks into a sprint, chasing after her.</p>
<p>“Hey! You dropped this!” </p>
<p>Natsumi turns around to see Riko holding the doujin.</p>
<p>She stops running. Riko hands it over to her.</p>
<p>Natsumi is looking at the floor, avoiding eye contact with Riko.</p>
<p>“P-please don’t tell anyone about this,” she manages to stammer out. Her voice is so much softer now. She’s strangely still, with a face that’s been drained of colour.</p>
<p>“It’s fine.” Riko doesn’t often get to play the cool senior, but she tries her best, taking a page from Kanan’s book. She’s being as reassuring as she can.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” she whispers back.</p>
<p>Natsumi zips up her bag and runs away from the scene as quickly as she can.</p>
<p>Riko’s left on her own.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Yoshiko doesn’t know when it started. When she had just joined Aqours she remembers having a distant admiration for Riko. She’s composed, elegant and amazingly talented. Everything that she isn’t.</p>
<p>Sure she has some talent in entertaining people, if her stream numbers mean anything, but it’s nothing compared to Riko. Riko deserves to sell out stadiums for her piano playing alone, not even counting her ability to sing and dance. Yoshiko wants the world for her, because it’s what she deserves.</p>
<p>So she dismisses her fixation on Riko as just jealousy. Yoshiko’s mother had always berated her about how she could’ve spent the time she spent playing video games learning a real talent, and Riko seems like the physical embodiment of her wasted potential. That’s what Yoshiko tells herself.</p>
<p>Slowly, her impression begins to change. They all learn more about Riko and find out that she wasn’t perfect either. She has her issues, and suddenly she feels more human and less like some abstract concept in Yoshiko’s head. She hopes Riko would forgive her for thinking this, but in reality she’s also a bit of a dork.</p>
<p>It all comes to a head when they take in a dog together. In retrospect, she probably just wants to use the dog as an excuse to just hang out with Riko, as selfish as it sounds. </p>
<p>In the end, though she could say that it’s all gone well. After all it’s probably the reason why Riko has a dog now. It lets Yoshiko pat herself on the back and ignore all of the stupid feelings that led her to that decision in the first place.</p>
<hr/>
<p>It hits Riko that it’s been a year or so since she’s read any of her yuri manga.</p>
<p>She made sure not to bring any when she moved in and she’s been avoiding thinking about any of it, but now she can’t help herself.</p>
<p>She locks the door to her apartment behind her and puts down her bags. She rests on the couch and her mind begins to wander.</p>
<p>
  <em> “Have Aki and Haruka gotten together yet?” </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> “How many volumes have I missed?” </em>
</p>
<p>Riko’s quick to try and suppress that immature side of her. She’s got better things to do, but she can’t help thinking back. All the times she had to hide them when people visited. There’s one time she stuffed them in a pillow when Yoshiko visited.</p>
<p>Being reminded of Yoshiko makes her unable to sit still. It reminds her of the regrets and what could’ve been.</p>
<p>The memories are like an ocean, flooding her mind, making her unable to think of anything but Yoshiko Tsushima. </p>
<p>She doesn’t know when it started. Maybe it was after they took in that dog. Riko remembers how close they got. Somehow the unlikely friendship just kept going. Somewhere along that road of hanging out, she started developing legitimate feelings. Feelings that she tried to keep hidden, trying to avoid damaging the friendship and ruining everything.</p>
<p>Riko doesn’t want to get hurt. So she keeps her distance.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Yoshiko remembers realising what her feelings were. It’s around the end of her second year, after they had all moved schools, just as Chika, You and Riko were all graduating. The sleepless nights were the thing that tipped her off. The fear of losing Riko. The nightmares of Riko forgetting about her, moving on to her future.</p>
<p>So she does her best to get closer to Riko before it’s all gone. They hang out, take care of Prelude together and Riko even makes a guest appearance on one of Yoshiko’s livestreams! It might be one of the best times in her life. But there’s always that thought hanging over her. The fact that she’ll never be any closer with her.</p>
<p>She decides she’ll confess the day before graduation, but when it comes she’s too scared.</p>
<p>Yoshiko still thinks she’s an unlucky person, not someone who was cursed by the heavens, but things never seemed to go her way when she needed them to most.</p>
<p>She decides she’ll make it up to herself, by sending Riko a present before she heads off to college. Honestly, she tries her hardest, even calling in Chika to help. In the end she ends up giving Riko a white dress. She wishes she could give her something thoughtful and grand, but she doesn’t have enough money to buy her something nice and making something for her is too difficult. Unless she’s interested in occult rituals or video games.</p>
<p>She imagines that white dress, sitting unused in the back corner of Riko’s closet. Maybe she’s thrown it away and she just doesn’t know. Yoshiko knows that she deserves better. It’s a cheap dress. It probably doesn’t mean anything to her.</p>
<p>Sometimes Yoshiko regrets everything.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Riko always wanted to tell Yoshiko how she felt, but every time she’d get scared. She wasn’t even sure Yoshiko was into girls. She made no hints either way, but even then, Riko knew that the world wasn’t some perfect paradise where all the girls she were into were also into girls. Life isn’t like one of her manga. </p>
<p>So she put it off, and put it off again. Yoshiko’s graduated too now, and she probably doesn’t have the time for her. Not like she ever did.</p>
<p>Maybe Riko’s just been deluding herself the whole time. She sometimes comes up with ideas about how Yoshiko actually likes her too. The way she calls her Lily, the way she smiles at her and the way she always wants to spend time with Riko. She’s probably seeing things that aren’t there.</p>
<p>Maybe Yoshiko’s feelings for her are like a mirage, something that will disappear if she gets closer to her. It could all be just her brain joining up the dots and making a picture out of things that aren’t really there.</p>
<p>Sometimes she wonders if those feelings aren’t just a fantasy. Sometimes Yoshiko would look at her and she would get the feeling that Yoshiko knew how she felt.</p>
<p>At this point it’s evident to her that these feelings haven’t faded with time. They’ve probably gotten stronger. </p>
<p>Riko resigns herself to the possibility of never getting over Yoshiko. Even after she's tried her best to over the past year.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Yoshiko isn’t good enough for Riko. Riko deserves someone who’s talented, rich and perfect. Yoshiko knows she’s none of those things. So she has to let go. She resists the temptation to message Riko about something inane like how her day’s been. It’ll just make it harder to move on. Judging by how Riko doesn’t send her anything, she probably doesn’t care about her anyway. Riko’s hard to forget about though.</p>
<p>She has to catch herself when she’s thinking about her and try to get her thoughts away from her idle fantasies. Maybe she’ll distract herself by playing the new game that’s just released. It’ll probably work well enough.</p>
<p>One day Riko might find someone else who’s right for her. One day she might be at one of Riko’s concerts, cheering her on whilst she performs with her equally talented wife. With someone who’s right for her and not someone with a stupid high-school crush on a girl who’s out of her league.</p>
<p>Yoshiko is prepared to leave this all behind. Riko has probably already forgotten about her. It’s not like she minds.</p>
<hr/>
<h1>2</h1>
<p>It’s a new day. The sun is peeking over the horizon. Sunlight filters in through Riko's blinds. Riko wakes up.</p>
<p>She gets herself dressed and presentable. After a few minutes of deliberating she decides to head out. It’s a lot better than moping about in her bedroom.</p>
<p>A few minutes of walking later, she sees Natsuki again. She’s holding another girl’s hand as she walks ahead of Riko. </p>
<p>Riko starts to pick up her pace, eventually catching up with the two girls. As soon as Natsuki sees her again she releases the hand of the girl she’s walking with.</p>
<p>Riko can see a blush creep up her face. She looks over to the girl Natsuki’s walking with. She has long black hair and is looking away from Riko, with her head buried in her hands. She looks back to Natsuki, who appears to be holding a box of chocolates in her other hand.</p>
<p>“What’s wrong?” Riko is pretty shocked at this whole thing. She’d only just found out this girl was into yuri yesterday and now she was finding out she had a girlfriend. It’s definitely a little surprising. What was with the chocolates anyway? Was it a special occasion?</p>
<p>“I-It’s not what it looks like!” Natsuki says, barely able to form a coherent sentence.</p>
<p>“It’s fine. I’m not gonna judge you.” She’s reminded of when she had to console Ruby years ago.</p>
<p>“Really?” Natsuki looks up at her.</p>
<p>Riko flashes a patient smile again. She simply nods.</p>
<p>The two girls both seem to have calmed down. She leaves the two of them behind, to have a bit of privacy. </p>
<p>Something comes over her and she realises she has Yoshiko’s number. She’s ready to take what might be her biggest step since she stepped on stage for the first time with You and Chika.</p>
<p>She pulls out her phone, and sends Yoshiko a short and simple message <em> “Hey, it’s been a while, how are you doing?” </em></p>
<p>It’s not much, but it’s something.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Yoshiko is awakened from her lie-in by a notification from her phone. It’s a new day. She checks her phone. Her eyes widen, and she decides to check it again.</p>
<p>It’s a message from Riko. Yoshiko takes a bit of time to process it.</p>
<p>She smiles just a little bit, before deciding to send her a message back. It’s reckless and she’s not sure if it’ll make things any better, but it’s a start. </p>
<p>She wonders why it took so long for Riko to message her. Maybe, just maybe, Riko felt the same thing as her. </p>
<p>After all, Riko did message her on Valentine's day. That definitely had to mean something.</p>
<p>
  <em> “I’m good, wanna hang out? I’ve got something I wanna tell you” </em>
</p>
<p>She waits a few moments for a response.</p>
<p>
  <em> “Sure Yoshiko. How’s Thursday?” </em>
</p>
<p>Maybe this is the start of something new.</p>
<hr/>
<p>They both take their first steps to a new and uncertain future.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Shoutouts again to the Idol Fanfic Hell discord server as well as my good buddy CVL who I blame entirely for making me want to do YohaRiko.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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